


black friday

by gwencelot



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-06
Updated: 2013-12-06
Packaged: 2018-01-03 15:18:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1072003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwencelot/pseuds/gwencelot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based off of the prompt, "AU where Roxas works a retail job and Axel steals his heart during a black friday sale rush."</p>
            </blockquote>





	black friday

**Author's Note:**

> THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SHORT WTF  
> and you know i had to throw a "got it memorized" in there come on it's been years since i've written a kh fic and that shit's classic

Roxas has, admittedly, done a lot of stupid things in his life, but volunteering to work third shift on the busiest shopping day of the year is by far the stupidest.

"Air!" he gasps, finally escaping the group of women who had swarmed him after carefully placing the "50% off" sign above their newest line of handbags. He inches away slowly, wincing at the scraps of tissue paper and - oh God, was that part of someone's _outfit?_ \- flying out of the mob.

"Roxas to the registers please," a pleasant voice requests over the store's intercom, and Roxas wonders, not for the first time tonight, how the hell Kairi manages to keep her cool in a situation like this.

He zigzags his way to the circular desk in the middle of the floor, narrowly avoiding being knocked down by overzealous customers. He squeezes through the long line, practically leaping the last few feet to his register and punching in his numbers.

"Next person in line!" He calls half-heartedly, glancing to his left while he waits for the customer to make their way over. Kairi is stood there at her own register, a smile plastered on her face, but Roxas can see the irritation in her eyes. Suddenly, something is slammed down onto the counter in front of him. Roxas jumps, turning to see an irate-looking woman with her hands clamped around the high-end blender she'd just brutally handled.

"This blender is damaged!" She shouts before Roxas can even get a word in. "I demand a discount!" He sighs, scratching at his blond hair in frustration.

"Let me get my manager..." He catches Kairi's attention just as she's bidding someone a good night and beckons her with an eye roll.

"Can I help you?" As Kairi works her sugary-sweet charm, Roxas allows his attention to wander. His brother is at the registers as well, looking frazzled but, in true Sora form, genuinely happy to be there; Riku stands at the returns desk directly next to him, an intimidating force at Sora's shoulder that's just _daring_ people to lose their patience with him; Naminé is near the door, alternately greeting people with a soft smile and folding shirts on the messy display in the window, and so on, and so on. Roxas smiles for the first time since he'd gotten trampled on his way to the bathroom three hours ago, proud of his team.

Roxas tunes back in just as Kairi is yelling, "Listen, lady, we can't just make a smoothie right now to show you that the blender is working!"

"Then you can forget about ever getting my business here _again_!" The woman shouts back, whipping something at Kairi's face and stomping out, ignoring Naminé's exasperated "happy holidays" as she passes. Roxas quickly turns Kairi's face towards his, mouth dropping open when he sees the red chunks stuck to it. The redhead calmly reaches up to pluck one off and they both stare at it.

"Raspberries," Kairi says, squishing it in her fingers. "She... actually brought raspberries to test the blender." Roxas spins around, not sure if Kairi would finally crack if she saw him laughing. His new position allows him a perfect view of the entrance and he's exchanging silent giggles with Naminé when he sees the person walking in. He isn't exactly hard to miss considering his height and bright red hair which seem right at home with all of the Christmas decorations adorning the mall. He's kinda hot, Roxas decides as he tracks the guy to the men's department with his eyes, if you're into perfect face symmetry and subtle bicep muscles. Which he totally, unfortunately, _is_.

"...Back on the floor," someone is saying, and Roxas turns toward the voice. Kairi is gone.

"Huh?" He asks, still slightly distracted.

"Kairi wants you back on the floor," Riku repeats, eyebrows raised in amusement. Roxas curses and looks longingly back at his register, a protective barrier between him and the customers. Riku, unhelpful as ever, grabs his shoulder and shoves him outside of the desk. 

"You have no soul!" Roxas calls weakly, already walking towards the men's department, eyes peeled for Hot Tall Guy. Riku waves with faux-cheerfulness, his aqua eyes crinkling as he smiles goodbye.

Roxas attempts to look casual, folding miscellaneous clothes that litter the floor and tossing them back onto their proper displays, straightening things that didn't need fixing and just generally trying to seem like he _isn't_ trying to find some random customer that he doesn't even know. And he's totally succeeding (no matter what Naminé says when he tells the story later).

When there's a hard tug on the back of his shirt a few minutes later, he's more than a little on edge. Roxas whips around, dislodging the person's iron grip on him to find himself staring at a group of three teenage girls.

"Um... can I help you?" He asks, reaching down to straighten his uniform. The blonde one who had been the one holding it suddenly reaches forward and yanks on the shirt again, dragging Roxas with it. "What the - ?!"

"Where did you get this shirt?" She demands, running her hands up and down the fabric. Roxas attempts escape multiple times with no avail. Her friends flank her, the brunette looking mildly apologetic and the other uninterested; they're obviously not going to help him.

"It's just something I throw on under my vest, uh, I don't..."

" _Throw on_?!" the girl practically screeches, swinging her arm side to side and sending Roxas on a mildly nauseating journey from left to right. "This is _perfect_!"

"Rikku," the brunette starts, tentatively reaching a hand out and for one second giving Roxas the false hope that he'll be set free. The hand never makes it, however, as the girl - Rikku - slaps it away.

"I've been looking for something like this," she says seriously to her friends before turning back to Roxas, a fire lit in her eyes. "How much?"

"What?"

Rikku huffs, hand clenching even more in the shirt. " _How much_ do you want for it?" Roxas gapes at her.

"This is my work uniform; I can't just sell it to you."

"There are a million other shirts here," Rikku says with a wave of her free hand, as if this is a perfectly reasonable request. Just as Roxas is actually considering stripping out of the shirt and handing it over just to make her go away, a different hand grips his shoulder and pulls him free.

"He said no."

It's like in every stupid, dumb, cheesy, wonderful romance flick Roxas has ever been forced into watching by Sora and Kairi. He looks up slowly, ready to thank his savior, and of course - it's Hot Tall Guy. Who is now being upgraded to Sexy Tall Guy, because wow, cheekbones and _eyes_ , hello.

"Excuse me?" Rikku sneers, hand already snaking its way back towards Roxas. He's pulled closer to the redhead, almost protectively.

"I don't like repeating myself. And I'll be the only one taking that shirt off of Roxas here, if you don't mind." The guy flashes a smirk, revealing two rows of perfect teeth, and melting Roxas' brain even further. Rikku plants her hands on her hips and, for a moment, looks like she's ready to argue this all night (and hey, Roxas could probably deal with that if Sexy Tall Guy keeps touching his shoulder like this) before she finally sighs and walks off, her friends trailing behind her.

Roxas watches them leave the store before clearing his throat and raising his eyes once again. "Uh, thanks, you didn't have to..."

"What, help a cutie like you?" the guy grins, eyes lighting up at the embarrassed look on Roxas' face. "Happy to."

"How'd you know my name?" He asks before he can say something humiliating like _please have my butt-babies_. The guy shrugs and points to his chest. Roxas looks down and, right, duh, nametag.

"Mine's Axel, by the way."

"Huh?"

The redhead smiles again, reaching down to squeeze Roxas' shoulder. "My name. Axel. Got it memorized?"

Roxas offers a smile of his own, reaching up to take Axel's hand from his shoulder and shake it. "A-X-E-L. Consider it memorized." Axel lets out a bark of laughter, attracting the attention of customers around them, and Roxas knows he only has seconds before he's swarmed again. "I get off in an hour," he blurts, feeling bold. Hey, what's the worst that could happen on a night like this?

"Well, let's certainly hope so," Axel winks, giving him a tap under the chin and backing away from the customers closing in.

"Cocky!" Roxas calls, standing on his tiptoes to grin at Axel's tall form in the store's doorway. The redhead laughs again, waving before he's out of sight. Suddenly, Roxas has a lot more energy to deal with these people.

****

~*~*~

He can't think of what to tell Sora and Riku when they ask Roxas why he's not coming to the car right away.

"Umm, I have to go to the bathroom," he tries.

"We'll wait for you," Sora smiles, swiping Riku's scarf from the hook in the break room and wrapping it around his own neck. Riku doesn't even react, simply pulling his coat on and flipping up the collar to shield from the icy winter wind that's awaiting them.

Roxas fiddles with the buttons on his jacket, doing up each one slowly. "I might be a while."

Riku rolls his eyes. "TMI."

"Just go without me!" Roxas insists, leading the way out to the front where Kairi is waiting impatiently to lock up, and even Naminé looks ready to pass out from where she's leaning against the doorway. "I'd rather not sit in Riku's shitty box of a car while it's freezing anyway." Kairi glares at him as they step out, only looking away to lower the gate and lock it. Riku opens his mouth to let out what's sure to be something equally as snarky, but someone else's voice cuts in before he can say anything.

"Ooh, Roxas has got a mouth on him." Axel is standing outside of the store, hands shoved in the pockets of his hoodie, and it is way too cold for that, what is he thinking?

"How are you still here? I thought the security guards made everyone leave," Roxas says instead of commenting on Axel's lack of proper winter outerwear. He's so smooth.

"I'm giving my buddy a ride home. They're still cleaning up in there."

"Where does he work?" Roxas is inching forward when, for the millionth time tonight, he's manhandled in the opposite direction that he wants to be going in. This time the culprit is Sora.

"Who's this?" The brunette squints his blue eyes suspiciously in Axel's direction, and Roxas rolls his own identical ones. 

"Sora, you're two minutes older than me, stop pretending to be protective. I'll meet you in the car," he says between his teeth, locking eyes with Sora and working their magical twin telepathy until Sora sighs and drags Riku along toward the exit. Kairi and Naminé follow, throwing curious glances behind them the whole way.

"Your friends are cute," Axel snickers, bringing Roxas' attention to him once again. "I would ask if you wanna grab a drink or something, but since we've both got somewhere to be... I just wanted to give you this." The redhead pulls one of his hands out of his pockets with a flourish, holding it closed out in front of him. "Put your hand out," he instructs, and Roxas finds himself doing it without question. Axel opens his own hand, dropping something into Roxas' palm.

Roxas looks at it blankly for a moment before it registers. "Is this - ?" a laugh bubbles in his throat as he brings it closer to inspect. It's a Christmas-red heart, slightly bigger than a quarter and plush to the touch, a phone number scrawled messily in sharpie on the front. It looks just like the ones that come from - 

"Build-a-Bear," Axel says, rocking back and forth on his heels. "That's where my friend works."

"How thoughtful," Roxas says cheekily, but he curls his fingers around the heart carefully before tucking it into his pocket. "You want me to call you or something?"

Axel brings a hand to his heart dramatically. "If you insist, Roxas." His smirk softens into an uncertain smile, and Roxas' stomach flutters with something he can't quite identify yet.

"I'll see you, Axel."

"See ya, Roxas."

****

~*~*~

Later, after Riku has dropped the twins off at their house and Sora has finally left Roxas alone after being shoved forcefully off of his bed, Roxas pulls out the heart again to program the number into his phone. It's only then that he notices the smaller letters on the other side, written more carefully, _Don't go breakin' my ♥._

The blond lets out a surprised laugh, placing the heart gently on his night table. Roxas thumbs out a message to Axel before tossing his phone beside him on the bed, rolling over and squeezing his eyes shut tightly until his vision turns to spots, wanting to capture this moment in his memory forever.

****

~*~*~

_I couldn't if I tried._


End file.
